VacationSelector
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

San Jose or Sapporo?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose San Jose for

  • day trips
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’s own page.

Choose Sapporo for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Sapporo’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. San Jose 30, Sapporo 28: San Jose leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. San Jose 56, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose 36, Sapporo 40: Sapporo leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. San Jose 33, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose 72, Sapporo 86: Sapporo leads by 14 points.
Day trips. San Jose 78, Sapporo 64: San Jose leads by 14 points.
Good for families. San Jose 65, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 7 points.
Getting around. San Jose 30, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose 48, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 10 points.
Affordability. San Jose 20, Sapporo 60: Sapporo leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose 38, Sapporo 44: Sapporo leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose 30, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 50 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose and Sapporo.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on day trips and beaches with your weighting.

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on getting around and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Sapporo in July

25 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
San JoseSapporo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JoseSapporo
Official language-Japanese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation25 m5 m
Main airportMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JoseSapporo
City population1,013,2401,959,313
People per km²2,1671,747
Museums within 10 km1933
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Jose or Sapporo somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.